Came back from Kaya to Fethiye by dolmus today - Hisaronou gridlocked - stationary queues for Oludeniz two thirds of the way back through Ovacik at 1pm !!!
When they get to Olu (at 4pm) where on earth are they going to park ? U-turn and head for Calis Beach methinks !!!
Twenty years ago, when I first visited, there wouldn't have been traffic jams in Fethiye, let alone Hisarono. There just weren't that many cars about and those that were there were better called "jalopies". Today, thanks to Erdogan's credit boom, there are loads of cars - mostly sparkling new. And it seems to me that once the cars with the 06, 34 and 35 registration plates hit town then there are a lot more Turks spending proper money (not just 1 lira cay) in restaurants. The downside for me is that the dolmuses seem to be less regular as there are so many people in cars
You're not kidding about spending money, Colwyn.
Two boat captains I know have said they are considering not taking advance bookings for bayram at all next year as they had absolutely no problem filling any spaces on their daily trips with Turkish visitors from the beach at Oludeniz each day, and could easily have done so even had their boats been totally empty to start with. They were turning people away, and those that got on board were willing to pay 100 lira per head to secure a place rather than the usual 40. (An added bonus of taking people off the beach means they wouldn't be trying to do transfers in the middle of all that traffic, either.)
I'm not advocating the boosting of prices to take advantage of holidaymakers as a general rule, but in what is proving a tough season, I don't begrudge these guys a little good fortune.